


Peonies and Primroses in Pennsylvania Fair

by Howling_Harpy



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Coming Out, Cuddling, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Mutual Pining, Period Typical Attitudes, Post-War, Returning Home, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 22:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21005165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Howling_Harpy/pseuds/Howling_Harpy
Summary: Harry is excited to join Nix on a visit to see Dick. Dick has finally been discharged from service, he has settled down in Pennsylvania and after a long time it's going to be the three of them again. It's going to be just like old times!(This is a sequal toDear Lover.)





	Peonies and Primroses in Pennsylvania Fair

**Author's Note:**

> I love friendship and the trio deserves to be together. Even if three is a crowd.
> 
> I wrote this as a sequal to Dear Lover, but this can also be read independently.

_Summer, 1952_

Harry was excited. He had been looking forward to this week since late winter when the matter had been agreed upon via letters, and now that the day had finally arrived, he was ready to go. 

Kitty watched him with amusement. “I’d ask you if you packed everything you need, but since you’ve packed and repacked thrice, it would be a stupid question.” 

Harry just grinned at her. She was right: the suitcase had been sitting by the door since yesterday. “Thank you for your concern,” he said, “and for your patient supervision.” 

She huffed a laugh and turned back to the kitchen. “Is your friend going to stay long enough for coffee?” 

Harry glanced out of the front window to the driveway for the umpteenth time, still seeing no car, and absently answered: “Uh, I don’t know. You never really know with Nix. I asked him to just pick me up on the way, but he’s never been one to turn down a treat either.” 

Harry followed Kitty to the kitchen and sat down at the table. There was a coffee cake under a glass dome, baked only yesterday and iced this morning, and it was clear that Kitty wanted to present and serve it to a guest, but whether this was the occasion or not was unclear.

Kitty seemed to sense that and directed one of her sharp looks at Harry, tilting her head. “But you’re both very anxious to get on the road to see your friend, aren’t you?”

Harry smiled sheepishly. “Yeah.” He didn’t need to explain it to her: he had told her more than enough in the letters he had written from the front, and shared enough pictures, postcards and letters from Nix and Dick for her to understand. 

Kitty smiled knowingly. “It’s been some time, hasn’t it?”

Harry sighed. “Yeah, I haven’t seen Nix since -45, or Dick since he moved back to Pennsylvania. And now it’s going to be all three of us again.” Just thinking about it brought a bright smile to his face, and again he glanced outside to search for the car Nix had described. “Really, I’m so glad Nix mentioned this visit in his letter. It didn’t even occur to him to pick me up even though I live along the way, that dog.” 

“He always seemed a bit aloof,” Kitty noted. 

Harry grinned. “He is, but it’s part of his charm. Dick always says he knew he was in trouble from the moment he befriended him.” 

Kitty gave an indulgent little laugh, a sound that both joined and separated her from their boyish habits and experiences. 

After only half an hour, a beautiful blue Buick finally turned on the Welshes’ driveway. Harry could barely keep himself from darting up and running to the door, but managed to stay put long enough to watch the car be parked and a dark-headed man get out of it. 

Kitty laughed at him when he skipped to the door and yanked it open before Nix got the chance to ring the doorbell. 

With a grin on his face, Harry took in the man in his early thirties standing on his doorstep, a finger reaching for the bell and now frozen in surprise. 

“Lewis Nixon,” Harry said.

Nix’s surprised expression melted into a familiar smile, now worn on an older face. “The one and only,” he said, opened his arms and welcomed Harry’s enthusiastic hug. 

They hugged tightly for a good while and gave each other friendly slaps on the back before Harry pushed Nix at arm’s length to properly look at him friend. 

“You look good, Nix,” he said, “and haven’t changed a bit.”

He wasn’t lying either, there was the same mischievous gleam in Nix’s brown eyes that hadn’t faded in seven years, his hair was combed back the same way, and his face was clean-shaven with the bluish touch of five o’clock shadow already there. He might have been older now, more distinctively mature rather than boyish, but Harry couldn’t tell. It was Nix just as he remembered him. 

The corner of Nix’s mouth tugged upwards in a lopsided smile. “You’re just the same too. It’s good to see you, Harry.” 

Harry grinned, and Nix returned the expression. 

When they had grinned at each other enough while hanging in the doorway, Harry remembered himself and with a slap on Nix’s arm invited him in. “Come on! We can be on our way as soon as we like, but come say hi to Kitty at least.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Nix said. “I listened to you yapping on and on about her too much to miss the real deal.” 

Nix didn’t take his coat off and Harry didn’t offer to take it, guessing they’d be leaving almost right away, but Nix did take a good look around the house when Harry took him to the kitchen. 

Kitty was standing by the kitchen counter when Harry and Nix stepped in and came to meet them with a charming, curious smile on her face. 

“Welcome to our home, Mr. Nixon. I’m Katherine Welsh,” Kitty said and offered her hand in a greeting. 

Nix gave her one of his charming smiles, took her hand and gave it a graceful shake. “Mrs. Welsh, it’s an honor to finally properly meet you. Harry spoke of you so much.”

“And he wrote about you,” Kitty countered, “only good things, I promise.”

“So he lied! Good man,” Nix said and laughed, let go of her hand and put his hands in the pockets of his slacks. 

Kitty didn’t laugh, only smiled and gave Nix a sharp once-over that he bore with resilient ease. 

“Will you be leaving right away, or would you like to stay for coffee?” Kitty asked, looking between the men. “I baked a coffee cake.”

Harry glanced at Nix, still not knowing their plan and wondering how Nix felt about it; he had always been restless when things really mattered, and seeing Nix here without Dick in his tow was strange enough to remind him that this was supposed to be a quick stop along the way. 

“We do have a lot of road ahead of us still, ma’am, but cake sounds wonderful,” Nix said, swinging on his heels. 

Kitty tilted her head. “Are you in a hurry?”

Nix shifted again, pushing his hands deeper into his pockets. “Well… Not exactly, no. But you see, it has been a long time since we’ve seen our friend, and we did agree to go directly to him, so it feels a bit strange to linger.” 

Harry took another look at Nix and suddenly realized that he looked tired. It was the same strain he had gotten used to seeing during the war and thus didn’t immediately recognize as unusual now, but Nix really looked like he had been driving all night. A memory surfaced, a whole collection of them, of Nix looking like that, shifting and anxious and restless, and Dick leaning into his space to rub shoulders or just gazing at him with that reassuring calm of his, and Harry wished they were already there so Dick could do it now. 

Kitty looked at Harry and Harry looked at Kitty, and Kitty nodded. “I’ll pack you some cake and coffee on the road then.” 

Within half an hour with Harry’s suitcase, packed lunch and cake, some sandwiches, and coffee in a thermos, Nix and Harry were on their way. Nix drove even though Harry had offered to.

As soon as they settled on the highway with only smooth open road ahead of them, Nix relaxed with only one hand on the wheel and gestured towards the plastic boxes of Kitty’s baked goods.

“Give me some of that cake, will you?”

Harry threw him a surprised look but got the box out anyway. Nix had never been a person with a sweet tooth before. “Sure. Kitty’s an amazing cook and baker, I bet you’ll like this.” Kitty had cut the cake into ready slices and Harry handed one to Nix, who took a large bite out of it, neverminding the crumbs falling in his lap.

“I bet. I saw that cake the second I stepped into your kitchen and haven’t stopped thinking about it since,” Nix said, mouth full.

Harry laughed, filled with pride. “She’s amazing. I think I’ve gained a dozen pounds just eating her food.” 

“Yeah, I can see that,” Nix noted playfully, eyes gleaming. “I’m the same. Ever since I stopped drinking I’ve been craving pastries. If it’s made of wheat and hopefully chocolate-covered, I will want it.” 

Harry broke a slice of cake in half for himself. It had a sweet coffee-chocolate icing, and Harry marvelled at Kitty’s skills as he inhaled the rich, spicy smell of the cake. “You quit for real then, huh?”

For some reason Nix looked awkward for a moment, swallowing the cake and half shrugging. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah. It just… Well. I don’t drink, but I do eat to make up for that.” He gave a laugh, light and ironic. “First when I stopped drinking I lost some weight, and then gained it all back when I started eating. There’s a balance in the universe, I suppose.”

“That’s good to hear. Now you and Dick can go about frustrating barkeepers by ordering plain lemonades together,” Harry chuckled. 

Nix laughed with him, but afterwards started to chew on his bottom lip, almost nervous. 

Harry watched him from the corner of his eye for a moment and didn’t have to wonder what that was about. Bringing up Dick was like that, and Harry could empathize. All three of them had been so close back then, and that feeling of camaraderie didn’t fade with time, but distance felt weird. When Harry had last seen Dick he had felt it as strongly as before, all of it, like they could just go back to army right then and there, and Harry would still be as willing to take a bullet for Dick as he had been back in Europe. 

Nix and Dick had been as thick as thieves and close friends already when Harry had joined their posse, so he could only imagine what Nix was feeling right now. 

Harry looked at the road ahead of them instead of Nix when he said: “So how long has it been? Since he moved out?” 

Nix didn’t answer right away even though he certainly knew the answer. Hell, Harry wouldn’t have wondered if he knew the exact number of days.

“Four years,” Nix said finally. “He moved out four years ago when the job didn’t turn out that well, and he moved back into his home state. We’ve been writing some, but because he was called back in service and all that we haven’t seen each other since when he left New Jersey.” 

Harry had enough tact to not ask about the job. He had about a hundred theories, but if he was perfectly honest he didn’t want to ask Nix about his family; every time it came up it was like pulling a trigger on one of Nix’s moods. “Well, you were getting a bit old for living together like that," he joked. "I really don’t get it, after army I certainly had had enough of bunking together with other smelly guys.”

Nix snorted. “Harry, if all guys are smelly, then how on Earth can you ask your poor wife to share a house with you?”

“As a group! Guys are smelly as a group!”

“Sure, sure,” Nix admitted but with a smirk on his face. “Lucky for us, two is hardly a group.” 

“Maybe you’re right there,” Harry said with good-natured humour. Besides, Dick had always been very meticulous with his hygiene anyway, so maybe their living situation had been amicable as long as it had lasted. That brought another thought back in Harry’s mind:

“I can’t believe you almost ditched me from this visit!” he said, slapping Nix in the arm.

“Hey, ow, I’m trying to drive here!” Nix whined. “And I didn’t try to ditch you, you already saw Dick a few years ago! It’s my turn now.”

Harry scoffed, then laughed. “He’s my friend too, you selfish ass! We both used to see him every day, it’s not like once every few years is going to suddenly be enough!” 

“Yeah,” Nix said, suddenly sighing so heavily his breath trembled. “Yeah, I know.”

Harry sensed something strange in the air between them, something dark and aching and impossible to pinpoint, something so much like Nix’s moods which he thought had been left behind with his boyhood and drinking. He slapped his arm again, gentler this time. “Oh, don’t be like that. We both know you’re his favorite anyway, so there’s no reason to pout. I want to see my buddy too, is all.” 

Something about that seemed to comfort Nix, because the smile was back on his face again. 

Harry took out more cake for both of them. “Come on. It’s not that long a way to go either. We’ll be there in a few hours.” 

The car seemed to speed up a little bit, Nix straightening up on the driver’s seat. “Yeah.” 

*

Dick had moved back to Pennsylvania, near a small city with lots of open fields and forest around it and a view of distant mountains that were blue against the horizon. Nix had a map of the area that he asked Harry to read for him, and when Harry folded it open, he saw a route already planned onto it with a pen. 

They drove through the city and into the outskirts, through fields and across a river, past scattered houses with yards and big gardens. Harry pointed out the right turn, a smaller sand road off the main road, lined with giant oak trees, and they drove that road all the way to its end. 

At the end of the road, surrounded by a meadow and a half wild orchard, was an old but freshly painted two-storey house with a sharp dark-tile roof and a homely looking porch. They passed a letterbox that read “Winters” on it, and Nix took the car slowly to the driveway that was only tire tracks in hay and grass.

While Nix drove, Harry kept his eyes on the house. It looked nice and large, and he would have bet that Dick had painted it himself. While they were still driving down the driveway, Harry saw the front door swinging open and a man stepping out onto the porch. There was no mistaking Dick Winters for anyone else, not with his unmistakable posture, height and bright red hair. For some reason Harry had expected him to be wearing his uniform, but despite that thought his blue jeans and plain button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows were a natural fit. With the front door left wide open behind him, Dick watched them from the porch with no shoes on and a bright smile on his face. 

Nix parked the car and while he was still busy shifting the gear off, turning the engine off and gathering his things, Harry was already up and out of the car, waving at Dick. 

“Hey! It’s been forever, buddy!” Harry greeted him, strode right to the house and jumped the few steps up to the porch. 

Dick gave him a warm smile. “Hello, Harry,” he said and leaned down to hug him. 

Hugs from Dick were a rare thing, he was always very formal and proper even amongst friends, but apparently after two years apart and in front of his own house he was much more relaxed, and Harry accepted the hug with joy. 

“It’s been too long,” he sighed when they pulled apart. 

“Yes, yes it has,” Dick said in return, and then his eyes darted back towards the car.

“Welsh! I’m not carrying your stuff for you!” Nix shouted from behind the car and the open trunk. 

Harry barked a laugh and skipped back down to go get his suitcase. Nix’s impatience was even funnier considering that he had dragged probably three times more stuff with him than Harry had, the small suitcase barely even fitting in the trunk of the car with Nix’s bags and travel chest taking up most of the space. 

Nix was hovering by the car, one of his bags swung over his shoulder and pretty obviously hiding behind the trunk’s hood and the tail light. Harry frowned at the nervous display, and for the first time it occurred to him that Nix himself might not have been entirely blameless in what had caused Dick to leave New Jersey. 

Harry wondered if there had been some sort of a falling out, some bigger crisis or an argument between the two, but immediately after he figured that had it been something serious Nix wouldn’t have come in the first place. And even if there had been something bad between then, it would have taken place four years ago, and now was now. It was all about clearing the air. 

So Harry settled on direct action, slammed the car’s trunk shut, grabbed Nix by the lapels of his coat and dragged him behind him to the house. 

“Now, wait a moment…” was all Nix managed before he found himself being pulled up the front steps and essentially thrust right in front of Dick. 

Harry could barely hold back his grin. He glanced at Dick, whose expression was utterly unreadable but his eyes were welling with emotion, and then at Nix who was lingering on the steps, acting almost coy. 

“Hi, Lew,” Dick softly said, his hand raising in a small wave despite their proximity. 

Nix looked flustered, looking up at Dick through his lashes. “Hi.”

Harry huffed a laugh before striding into the house, leaving the two at each other’s mercy. 

The house was old, probably from the previous century, but recently renovated, the paint on its walls clearly fresh. It was a nice house with dark wooden floors, big windows and a lot of open space. The hall gave way directly into a roomy kitchen, where Harry could see clearly new cabinets, a large masonry oven and a stove, and by the window a good-sized dining table. He peeked into the living-room as well, seeing a fireplace, a tea table and some armchairs, a plush green carpet on the floor and an empty china cabinet in the back. 

There were stairs in the hall leading to the second floor, where Harry assumed the bedrooms were. He set his suitcase down by the stairs and shook off his coat. The house seemed pretty well furnished, but there were also signs of how recent the move had been: various necessary things were still missing. There was no coat rack, for example, only one of the chairs from the kitchen with a pile of coats and sweaters and a few hats on it, there were rolled up carpets by the living-room doorway, and boxes stacked up by the stairs. Dick was clearly still in the process of moving in and making the house his own, but still it already had a homely feel to it.

Harry had his coat folded over his arm and was looking around when Dick and Nix stepped inside. Whatever had been between them outside had vanished, both smiling easily. 

“Oh, just… Put that wherever,” Dick said, spotting the coat over Harry’s arm and gesturing towards the clothing pile on the chair. “I’ve only just started settling in, renovations delayed the furnishing and so on.”

“I think we’ll manage,” Harry said, tossing his coat on the top of the pile. “It’s a really nice house, Dick.”

Dick smiled, pleased. “Yeah? I thought so. It needed, and probably still needs, some work, but I really liked the location, the garden and the fireplace.”

“How many rooms do you have?” Harry asked.

“There’s the kitchen, the living-room and the bath downstairs, and four bedrooms on the second floor, plus a small attic chamber.” 

Harry nodded, impressed. “That’s nice. There’s room for a family here.” Harry’s chest grew warm just thinking about his friend having a family of his own. Dick would be amazing at it, and he would deserve all of it. The garden would be a perfect place for kids to play in. 

Dick smiled, proud and happy. “Exactly. A family,” he said, glancing at Nix. 

Harry wondered if family was a sore subject for Nix, but couldn’t figure out a tactful way to express his lack of judgement about his situation. He could only hope that Dick could communicate it well enough with a look, as he often did with Nix. 

But Nix didn’t look offended or called out at all. He was circling the hall and peeking into the rooms like a dog in a new house he was curiously inspecting. You could almost see his tail wagging. 

Harry and Dick exchanged a look about him, and then with a fond shake of his head Dick cleared his throat. “Do you want to see the house some, Nix?”

Nix startled and gave a laugh, a bit awkward like he had been caught doing something forbidden. “Yeah, sure. Although I can already tell you need some curtains here.” 

Dick laughed and showed them around while also appointing them rooms for their stay so they could leave their things there. The kitchen and the living-room were pretty well set up, but on a closer look both had a strong mark of generous relatives and a helpful mother on them, and the upstairs were clearly more a work in progress. Still, Dick had his own bedroom, a guest room, and a study with a couch bed. Harry took the guest room while Nix dropped his stuff in the study. 

They had dinner at home, mashed potatoes with chicken roasted in the oven and a side salad. Dinner turned easily into coffee and biscuits, which continued so long that the day turned into evening, they got hungry again and made sandwiches to take with them into the living-room. 

Conversation was just as easy as always, now maybe even more so because they all had so much to tell. Only a few years had passed, but many things had happened and changed, and letters could only express so much. Harry talked eagerly about his job in the school system, about all the students and the curriculums he was trying to get approved both by the higher-ups and the teachers, and mused on how he, a former unruly school boy, had now joined the ranks of the school staff and was forced to consider his past antics in a new light. Nix confessed to similar escapades during his school years but without any remorse. Predictably Dick had been a model student, and Nix briefly teased that had they known each other in school he would have lured him in trouble. 

Dick had a new job in the city and he seemed excited about it. He managed personnel, and getting to use his organizing skills in practise brought him a great deal of satisfaction. He didn’t mention New Jersey at all, and neither did Nix, and Harry didn’t ask. 

Harry had brought a bottle of whiskey with him, but now found he had no one to share it with. 

Nix shook his head. “Yeah, no, I quit over a year ago. I think I told you.”

“Yeah, you did, but… Completely?” Harry asked, brows raised.

Nix shrugged with a half a smile. “Yep. There was really no middle ground there for me. It was either keep drinking or kick the habit for good.” 

“Damn. Who do I drink with now?” Harry sighed.

Nix’s smile was almost a grimace. “It wasn’t really good for me.”

Harry bumped their knees together. “I hear you. I’m happy for you, Nix, but drinking alone is no fun either.”

Dick took half a sandwich from the plate and turned to Harry. “You may drink in my house. It’s allowed.” 

Harry considered this. “Well, maybe a glass or two, even though it’s not that fun. It’s not like I drink much at home either.” 

Dick went to fetch him a glass from the kitchen. Harry filled it, then mindfully placed it as far away from Nix’s corner of the table as he naturally could. 

“Kitty doesn’t like you drinking, huh?” Dick asked when Harry took a sip of whiskey.

Harry smiled fondly and felt a tug of longing at the mention of his wife. “No, she sure doesn’t. We haven’t really talked about it and she isn’t that forward about it, but she doesn’t like to see me drunk, so I limit myself to a glass every other weekend, if even that. It’s so easy to forget about when you don’t do it that often.” 

Nix scoffed. “Oh, I wish. My first three months dry were hell. I didn’t have a wife to keep me straight either.”

Harry smiled sympathetically. “I bet Dick took that upon himself, huh? Wrote you weekly letters of moral support and brought you back in the fold?” 

The traces of grimace vanished from Nix’s expression and his eyes lit up. He waved his hand dismissively, and that was all Harry needed to know that he had hit the nail on the head. He laughed.

Dick grinned too. “Merely simple words of encouragement to support what was already there,” he noted, and Nix’s smile stretched into a grin as well. Dick’s eyes twinkled. “Despite the distance and my service, I always have time for my men.” 

Nix snorted and shook his head, blushing. 

“Oh, right! How are the young American soldiers nowadays?” Harry asked. 

Dick took a moment to think about it, sighed and shook his head. His expression turned nostalgic. “Not like we were,” he finally said. “I don’t think there will ever be another bunch of guys as dedicated and fine as we were.” 

“Cheers, I’ll drink to that,” Harry said, and Nix clinked his soda bottle with his whiskey glass.

“I’m officially discharged now,” Dick said. “That’s it for my time with the army, for real and good this time.”

“Everyone still calls him Major though,” Nix said to Harry, who chuckled.

“So, what’s next for you then?” Harry asked. 

“My civilian career and tending to my garden,” Dick said.

Harry rolled his eyes at Dick’s avoidance. “That we already covered. I meant on the social front. Still no date for Dick Winters, huh? No babies about to take up those bedrooms?” 

Dick had grown up and gained enough confidence around this talking point that he didn’t blush, but instead returned Harry’s look with one of his noncommittal, blank ones. “No kids. I’ve already explained this to my parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles, my little sister and most of my friends.” 

Harry raised his hands in a peace offering, dropping the subject. It was a difficult one for him as well, so he left it. 

“How about a wife? I bet there’s a line by now,” he asked.

Dick huffed, finally flushing a bit and dropping his gaze. “That would be the logical first step to kids, at least. But no, no wife.”

Nix sniggered, slumping down in his chair most likely in order to reach to poke Dick in the shin. “Not from the lack of trying either, on everyone else’s part, that is. His mother and all the nice ladies at his church are taking waiting numbers for their and their friends’ daughters and nieces.” 

Dick threw him a look and rolled his eyes. 

Harry joined in the teasing. “Your bedroom is for two, though. Are you sure there’s no one to take up the extra space?” 

Despite his blush, Dick managed to smirk. “Even if I were to take someone to my bed, that doesn’t make a person a wife.” 

Harry sputtered and laughed and Nix inhaled his soda, ending up spitting half of it out in the following coughing fit, making Harry laugh harder and Dick grin. 

The evening went on. They played a few rounds of cards and stayed awake defying their growing exhaustion. Harry downed three glasses of whiskey and with his lowered tolerance dozed off in one of the armchairs, and so did Nix despite not having had a drop of alcohol. 

Harry kept drifting in and out of dream, vaguely aware of Dick quietly moving about and taking dishes to the kitchen, and even more vaguely aware that when the flowers of the wallpaper started to look like real plants blooming from the walls, he was asleep. He toed that fine line, sinking into the cushions, enjoying the light buzz of alcohol and the joy of being with his two closest friends, and observing the living-room wall bloom with peonies and primroses and deep green wines, covering everything and gently pulling everything into their world. 

Quiet words drifted into Harry’s dream. At first they didn’t register at all, too soft and nonsensical to be anything but a dream. 

“Lew. Wake up, Lew... Lew… Hey, hi. Hi.”

“Mm hi.” 

“Shh, Harry’s asleep.” 

“Yeah, me too.”

The words were soft, almost muttered, the voices so gentle and smooth that they seemed to belong in the dream world with the flowers.

“How do you like the house?”

“It’s perfect. Just… perfect. I love it.” 

“I’m glad.” A beat of silence, short as a breath and still like hours in the dream. “I wanted to carry you over the threshold.” 

A quiet laugh. “You are… So much.”

“Too much?”

A humming sound. “No, just right. Just perfect.” A shifting sound from a chair, the cushions shuffling against clothing. “C‘mere.” 

A deep sigh filled the room, a strangely layered sound, and it took Harry’s dozing brain a moment to realize it came from two people at once. It was a strange sound, both like the air being knocked out of someone as well as a sound of deep contentment. 

“I’m so happy to see you again,” Nix whispered, his voice strangely muffled. 

Dick sounded a little strained. “Yeah, you too. I missed you so much.” 

The words were finally registering to Harry, not only as coherent sentences with meaning, but also as things spoken by familiar voices that he recognised as his friends’. Their voices were quiet and soft, gentle like they sometimes briefly were when they seemed to talk about something just between themselves despite having company, but the words were something Harry hadn’t ever heard from them before and they didn’t fit the picture.

Puzzled, Harry listened, and after a moment risked turning his head towards the voices a bit and cracking his eyes open ever so slightly. 

Nix was still in his chair where he had dozed off, Dick was standing right next to him, and they had their arms around each other. 

Nix had his arms wrapped tightly around Dick’s middle and his face pressed against his stomach, Dick’s shirt covering half of his mouth and muffling his words. Nix had his eyes closed. “Don’t ever leave again.”

“I won’t,” Dick reassured softly, “don’t you either.”

Nix nuzzled against Dick, his palms flat against his back. “I won’t, I promise. I won’t ever leave you. I’ll stay right here with you, I swear.”

“At our house.” Dick sounded almost giddy. His hands were cradling Nix against him, one sunken into his hair and gently combing through it again and again. 

Nix smiled and pressed his cheek more firmly against Dick’s stomach. “Yeah. Our house.” 

Another pained sigh sounded in the room. Nix’s brow furrowed, and like caught in a flood of some emotion he turned to fully bury his face in Dick’s shirt, mouth open in a trembling gasp and his hands grasping at his back. “I’ve been so lonely, Dick,” he said in a small voice. “I missed you. I’ve missed you for years, and it feels like I still do even though you’re right here.”

“Oh, darling,” Dick whispered and sank down to sit on the armrest of the chair in a fluid motion as if spurred on by Nix’s tone alone, and as smoothly he wrapped his arms around Nix, pressing his head against his chest instead of his middle. Dick’s hand stroked Nix’s back, up and down in an urgent caress, and his head came to rest on top of Nix’s, fair cheek to black hair. “My darling.” 

They stayed together like that, and Harry watched them through his lashes. They swayed a bit, rocking from side to side while wrapped around each other, tight but gentle, in an embrace that despite everything didn’t seem tight enough for them. They stayed like that for a long while, both with their eyes closed, Nix pressed against Dick and squeezing him to him, and Dick leaning over him like wanting to shelter him. They remained like that even when the flowers and vines faded back into the wallpaper and became just pictures again.

Harry was wide awake but closed his eyes again. He didn’t think anything, just concentrated to staying still and inconspicuous, afraid of intruding on this moment that he was definitely not welcome to. 

“Are you tired?” Dick asked quietly.

Nix mumbled something into his shirt. Then, “Yeah. I was too anxious to see you again to sleep, and then I drove all day.” 

Dick hummed, his voice thick with affection. “Poor you. You should go to bed.” 

“We really should.”

“Do you think we should wake Harry and tell him to go to bed?”

Harry was uncomfortably aware that both of them were looking at him then. 

Nix made an agreeing noise. “We probably should. He’ll mess up his back like that.” 

Despite agreement, neither one made a move to get on with it, and for a long while it was quiet. For such a long while in fact, that despite the tension and the shock Harry felt himself drifting off again. The next thing he knew was that he was nudged awake. 

Dick was shaking him by the shoulder. “Hey, buddy. You should go to bed.”

Harry blinked and looked around. The living-room was dark, and Nix was nowhere to be seen. Harry let himself be pulled up from the chair, stretched until something in his back popped, and then followed Dick upstairs and into the guest room. As he got into bed he wondered briefly if he had dreamed it all. 

When Harry woke up the next morning and got dressed, he still wasn’t quite sure if he had dreamed it or not. He was almost entirely sure that it had been real, he had been awake to hear and see it after all, but… 

But. He stared out of the window and felt the gears in his mind grinding. There was some sort of a mental block in his head just refusing to comprehend any of it. 

He had seen and heard it. It felt like everything had just been called into question, and every single thing, every single interaction and factoid was now re-evaluated in the light of this new information, and all of it formed one mess of a puzzle in Harry’s mind. 

How had something like this slipped by him for so long? Or how had they managed to hide it? Harry thought about Nix and Dick and tried to see their friendship as something different and more. 

He had seen them wrapped into each other in a manner that was definitely not simply friendly. Nix hanging onto Dick like that might have been excusable if he was drunk, which he wasn’t, but Dick holding him like a bride, stroking his hair… 

Harry rubbed his hands over his face. How had this escaped him was the question. Maybe it was because either Nix or Dick didn’t match his mental image of men like that, but that was a flimsy excuse for not seeing what was going on right in front of him.

How had their friendship got into that point? How had Harry _missed something like that?_ He had always known that Nix was special to Dick, that there were Dick’s friends and then there was Nix, but somehow it hadn’t added up.

Another disturbing thought arose in Harry’s mind: had he known all along, but chosen not to see it? Was he that cowardly that he would let himself live on in denial rather than face the truth? And if he could deny it, did the truth even matter that much? Or did it matter so much in fact, that denying it was the only way to cope?

He thought about Nix’s soft, openly vulnerable voice confessing how much he had missed Dick. He thought about Dick stroking Nix’s hair. 

Suddenly Harry felt himself flushing. Four years they had been apart and only yesterday been reunited. No wonder Nix hadn’t wanted Harry to tag along, he must have been looking forward to the reunion and wanted it to be private. 

He rubbed his face again. Whatever the case was, he would have to face them both and go have breakfast. He could tell by the sounds around the house that at least Dick was already awake. 

It turned out that he was wrong. Both Dick and Nix were awake, but only Dick was actually preparing breakfast and Nix was sitting at the table, struggling to keep his eyes open. 

“Good morning,” Dick greeted Harry with a bright smile, ever the morning person. “Have a seat.”

Harry did. There was a pot of oatmeal on the table, as well as a selection of homemade jams, a bowl of sugar and butter on a plate. Dick was making toast in a pan on the stove and brewing coffee while at it.

Harry made himself a bowl of oatmeal with butter and a spoonful of strawberry jam. 

“Did you sleep okay?” Dick asked. 

“Yeah,” Harry answered and wasn’t lying. It was being awake that was giving him trouble. 

“Do you want toast with that?” Dick asked.

“Sure. Thanks.”

“Give it a minute and you can have these slices.” 

When the toast was done, Dick served two slices to Harry and put two more in the pan. It was a beautiful summer morning outside, and from the way the sun was shining from the blue sky one could tell it was going to be a hot day. 

Harry watched Dick make two slices of toast for himself, then pour three cups of coffee. Dick set his plate on the table, then brought the coffee cups over. He handed Harry one, then made one cup with milk and sugar, and another with only a dash of milk. He set the other cup in front of Nix, touching his arm to get his attention. Nix opened his eyes and was happy to find a cup of coffee in front of him. They shared a smile, and Nix took a clearly pleasurable sip of coffee, slightly more awake even with his eyes still drooping. 

Dick was leaning his cheek on his hand and watching Nix with a fond smile. Then he caught Harry watching him from the corner of his eye and the smile was contained. 

Harry took a bite of his toast and shrugged. “Go on, be happy in your own house. It’s allowed,” he said, teasing being an easy and familiar routine to fall back on. 

Dick cast his eyes down and smiled. He took a sip of his own coffee and glanced at Nix again. 

“Yeah, I know. It’s not that, it’s just… Well. It’s good to be home, you know.” 

Harry nodded. “Yeah.” And he did know. He glanced out of the window into the half wild garden that Dick was only starting to tame. It would be a lot of work, all on top of the usual fuss with a day job and maintaining an old house like this one. “Are you really going to have a family here, Dick?” 

Dick turned fully to Harry then, perhaps hearing the several layers of the question. Harry wouldn’t have been surprised if he did; Dick was always prepared for everything, after all. 

Dick met his gaze head on, steady and unwavering. It looked like he turned the question over in his mind, but just to amuse Harry. He seemed like he had the answer prepared already. 

Dick nodded. “Yeah, I’ll have a family. Maybe it’ll be small, but it’ll be loving and good.”

Harry stared back at him and took another bite out of his toast. Dick studied him intensely, like he was looking for something, and Harry allowed him. After a moment Dick seemed to find what he was looking for, because he nodded to himself and returned to his coffee. 

“You know what they say, Harry,” he said, “homes are not found, they are built. Families as well.” 

“Yeah.” Harry tasted his oatmeal with the jam. “This is really good.” 

Dick nodded. “My mother and sister will get the compliments.” 

It was a warm, cosy kitchen, and the breakfast was sturdy and delicious. Coffee and occasional nudges from Dick together were slowly waking Nix up. The sun was already high up. It was going to be a beautiful day.

**Author's Note:**

> I might have a thing for this "accidentally seen by someone" business. Hmmm.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Peonies and primroses (colorized version in ch.2)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21146207) by [Lysel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lysel/pseuds/Lysel)


End file.
